These days, everyone recognizes the benefits of going solar, even professional football players. In this series of videos, produced by our friends at New England Clean Energy, New England Patriot Nate Solder shares his thoughts about solar.

GAAMHA, Inc. is a crucial provider of services for adults with disabilities in the town of Gardner, Massachusetts. As with many nonprofits, GAAMHA’s budget is tight, and every dollar counts. In 2014, their electricity rates were increasing so rapidly the organization feared the costs would overwhelm their ability to deliver services—services the community counts on for individuals in need.

When homelessness and housing instability expanded during the Great Recession, a group of low income housing and service providers in Worcester came together to figure out how to meet the increased need for assistance at a time when the funding available to provide support was in decline. The solution? Solar and other energy-saving, cost-reducing strategies.

John Livermore has a long history of working in the energy efficiency sector and in 2008 he decided it was time to use his professional skills to meet a personal objective - reducing his family’s carbon footprint. John’s goals were to complete an affordable energy renovation of his home, show that it was possible to achieve ‘net positive energy’, and serve as an example for others who wanted to reduce their household’s carbon footprint.

Laura Tangerini owns Tangerini’s Spring Street Farm with her husband Charlie in Millis, a small town about 25 miles south west of Boston. They run a year-round 300-member CSA, a farm stand, and even have their own ice cream shop. They also organize seven weeks of summer camp on the farm for kids, host birthday parties and field trips and teach classes.

Much as she would love to, Nadine Connelly does not own the home she lives in with her three young children, Rowan (3), Fiona (6) and Neeve (8). For that reason, owning a solar system to power her home seemed out of reach. However, thanks to Massachusetts pioneering virtual net metering policy, Nadine and over 100 other community members are able to purchase net metering credits from the nearby Harvard Solar Gardens (HSG), a community-shared solar project developed by Solar Design Associates in Harvard, MA.

Solar benefits cities and towns by reducing and stabilizing energy costs and increasing tax revenue. In New Bedford, the local government has installed 10 solar projects across the city and currently has the most installed solar per capita in the continental US. These 10 solar projects will save the city an estimated $22 million in electricity costs over the next 20 years. Click on the video link to learn more about how solar is working for New Bedford.

Happy Valley Organics. The name conjures great imagery in both lifestyle and nutrition. One could picture rows and rows of multicolored field vegetables, tractors tilling long straight rows of bright green kale or seasonal farm workers adding their rich cultural handprint to our food cycle. Truthfully, that would be a fairly accurate image. But what about photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), watts per meter squared (W/m2) or Daily Light Integral (DLI) lighting? For Happy Valley Organics that is the language of their extensive greenhouse operation.